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Tourism businesses have always adapted to changing visitor expectations. One of the latest shifts is the growing number of travellers arriving in electric vehicles.
As more New Zealanders and international visitors choose EVs, charging is becoming part of the travel experience. For many drivers, the ideal experience is simple: plug in and continue enjoying the trip.
For hotels, holiday parks, wineries, restaurants, attractions and retail destinations, that creates an opportunity to attract visitors, encourage longer stays and enhance the customer experience.
The key is recognising that EV charging is different from traditional refuelling. Rather than stopping solely to fill up, travellers can charge while doing something they already planned to do – staying overnight, having lunch, shopping or exploring a destination.
That is why destination charging matters. It places charging where people are already spending time.
Growing charging coverage at tourism destinations will also support the gradual electrification of rental cars, campervans, coaches and other tourism transport fleets.
This creates a clear opportunity for operators to make charging part of their offering. Visitors can recharge while staying overnight, visiting an attraction, dining out or spending time in a town centre.
Charging becomes part of the destination experience rather than a separate task.
For site hosts, the business benefits can be equally important. Charging can attract EV-driving visitors, increase dwell time and make a destination more appealing when travellers are deciding where to stop, stay or spend.
In many cases, the best charging locations are not traditional fuel stops. They are places people are already visiting.
‘Dwell time’ is key.
A traveller checking into a hotel, spending an afternoon at an attraction or staying overnight at a holiday park does not necessarily need an ultra-rapid charger. They need charging that matches the length of their stay.
Tekapo is a good example. As an overnight destination with significant tourist traffic, it needs charging infrastructure, but not every charger needs to be ultra-fast.
Destination charging can play an especially important role in locations where grid capacity is constrained and visitors remain for several hours or more.
The question should not simply be, “Where can we install the fastest charger?” Instead, it should be, “Where are people already stopping, and what type of charging best matches that visit?”
Put chargers where life happens
At ChargeNet, we talk about putting chargers where life happens, and tourism is a clear example of why that matters.
Many tourism destinations have relatively small resident populations but experience significant seasonal demand. Once rental vehicles, campervans, tour buses and visitor traffic are factored in, the charging profile can look very different.
Tourism creates concentrated demand in places traditional infrastructure planning can overlook, and closing the confidence gap is critical to uptake.
I recently took an EV journey from Christchurch to Queenstown – via Rakaia, Ashburton, Geraldine, Fairlie, Tekapo, Twizel, Ōmārama and Cromwell – which showed how far the network has come.
The trip was straightforward, with no range or charging anxiety, and the route is already capable of supporting EV travel at scale.
But it also points to what comes next.
For hotels, holiday parks, attractions, hospitality venues and commercial property owners, destination charging represents an opportunity. As EV numbers grow, charging can help attract customers and meet changing visitor expectations.
A holiday park with charging becomes more attractive to EV visitors. A hotel can give guests greater confidence when planning a trip. An attraction or hospitality venue can encourage visitors to stay longer while they recharge.
In that sense, destination charging is more than infrastructure. It becomes part of the customer experience.
Thinking in routes, not sites
The Christchurch–Queenstown corridor already demonstrates how far New Zealand has come. It is the kind of experience that can help normalise EV road trips.
But as tourism fleets electrify, the network will need to scale.
Charging must become even simpler than refuelling: plug in, walk away and enjoy the destination.
That requires thinking beyond individual charging sites and focusing on entire tourism routes. Where do people stop? Where do they stay? Where do they spend time?
Answering those questions is how we build charging infrastructure that supports both visitors and tourism businesses.
For tourism operators, destination charging offers a chance to meet changing visitor expectations while becoming part of New Zealand’s electrification journey.
Where tourism demand exists, infrastructure should follow.
